The initiative was taken by Latsia COOP Bank in early 2009 and the unveiling took place on December 20th 2009. The memorial is dedicated to those who died during the 1963-64 inter-communal conflicts and the Turkish invasion, and to the 1974 missing.

According to the art competition call: “The artist is required to express the concepts of heroism and the sacrificial spirit of the dead. At the same time an explicit hint to the missing needs to be obvious along with the hope for their return”.

The wining artist Maro Bartzili proposed a modern synthesis where the distinct geometric elements balance with the human figure in a way that “intense lyricism and softness, motion and immobility coexist”.

According to her proposal, the monument will invoke “the sacrifice, the strength and courage, along with the hero’s serenity confronting death or captivity [..] On the left hand side two figures, a female and a male, emerge from the material, symbolize the sacrifice, the loss and the wailing for the dead and missing […] The flower like shape they form is reminiscent of the bud that blooms, in the same way sacrifices come into fruition. In this way the two figures symbolize hope, too. The figure on the right hand side makes part of the geometric construction, becomes leverage, the driving force for all the claims for our missing people and their return”.

The vertical geometric surface bears the names of the dead and missing and functions as a commemorative stele, too. The whole construction uses the wall of the Town Hall as a theatrical backdrop and, unlike most memorials, is placed lower than the ground level in a way that suggests emersion.

This memorial could define the epitome of the Cypriot mother’s identity. The memorial brings together the distillate of the national symbols constructing a concise visual narration of the Greek Cypriot identity. A hexagonal marble pedestal mounted on a low base and delimited by an equal number of Doric-like columns carries four massive Cypriot women who share the weight of an extra size bronze torch on their backs. The women, all in typical peasant dresses, struggle under the weight of the torch, striving to balance it and safeguard its flame. The six metopes between the Doric-like columns are decorated with low reliefs capturing iconic images of the Cypriot tragedy: wire fences; dead bodies; symbols of martyrdom; the idealized female figure of victory or motherland embracing the souls of her fighters; wailing women in front of a church; and soldiers at the peak of battle.

Apart from the apparent physical weight the gigantic torch implies, its’ symbolic weight serves as an allegory of heroism and of the sacrifices required in order to ensure the historical continuity and the safety of the homeland. That sacrifice is mirrored on the bodies and faces of these women, and inextricably testifies to their role in the ethno-nationalistic rhetoric.

On the one of the six metopes it is written: “To you who have not died, to you who are not alive, to you who did not get a proper burial, to you whom I wait for” (Σε σένα που δεν πέθανες, σε σένα που δε ζεις, σε σένα που δεν τάφηκες, σε σένα που προσμένω). Below that, on a scroll framed by a laurel wreath there is a second dedication: “Whoever you are… Wherever you are… Whatever you are… You, Mother… Love” (Όποια και να σαι… Όπου και να σαι… Ότι και να σαι, Μάνα εσύ … Αγάπη).